Max Klinger (1857–1920), a pioneer of German Symbolism, was one of the most prominent and controversial artists in the international art world around 1900. His work comprises paintings, sculptures and a large and varied body of prints. Inspired by Wagner’s idea of the gesamtkunstwerk, Klinger sought to overcome the division of the creative disciplines and to fuse painting, sculpture, architecture and even music into a single harmonious whole.

His ‘singular fantasticism’ and his vividly imagined, technically brilliant prints earned him great admiration early on in his career. In his paintings and sculptures, he turned away from the stale academicism and idealisation that governed figuration at the time and embraced a daring naturalism in the depiction of the naked human body that shocked his contemporaries. His novel approach played an important role in the modern conceptualisation of the human figure.

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Curator
Agnieszka Lulińska